Some great matches but it’s all for nothing
WITH the men’s Six Nations finally over, albeit with the painfully poor display by England cemented in our memories – despite Steve Borthwick’s promise of something special to brighten fans after Fast Eddie’s demise – our only hope for the rest of the season was to be able to look forward to the drama at club level as teams fought for survival or battled to top their league.
Unfortunately, despite some of the Premiership and other league’s matches giving us a far more competitive game to watch last weekend, it’s all for nothing.
With the Premiership ringfenced and the Championship likely to be forced into a new format for next year, the whole game is in disarray with teams playing for who knows what even if they win their league.
There can be no doubt that the impact of the financial collapse of two of the Premiership clubs, Wasps and Worcester, has sent shockwaves throughout the whole of the English game with everyone wondering how and if the game can truly recover.
Those fears were made worse by the news of the possible loss of two more Premiership clubs, Newcastle and London Irish, both of whom reportedly close to the precipice of financial failure.
Newcastle could possibly relegate themselves to the Championship to ease their financial commitments, which would mean the Premiership being reduced to 10 clubs, an idea mooted last year to help the finances of all the remaining clubs.
Meanwhile, resurgent play-off contenders London Irish are still waiting for the promised takeover that seems to be continually delayed which, given the circumstances currently surrounding the finances of the Premiership, is not that surprising.
This is despite what appears to be some great attendance figures for some one-off games being held in the big stadiums, with Harlequins attracting a 54,000-plus audience to their ‘Big Game’ at Twickenham, which has a capacity of 82,000, and Saracens attracting a near-capacity crowd of 55,109 last week at Tottenham Hotspurs’ new stadium which has a capacity of 62,850.
This shows that there is a good audience for the game but unfortunately it appears only for these popular one-off ‘Big Games’ with the usual club attendance said by the Premiership to be gates averaging around 16,400, even though seven out of the 11 clubs in the league, Sale Sharks (12,000), Newcastle Falcons (10,200), Northampton
“The whole game is in disarray with teams playing for who knows what, even if they win”
Saints (14,800), Harlequins (14,800), Saracens (10,000), Exeter Chiefs (12,921) and Bath (14,500) don’t have that many seats.
What that reveals is that even if a number of the clubs were to sell out every week, which they don’t, they would still not earn enough money to break even given the level of money paid to staff and players.
As we all await news of the new Professional Game Agreement that is currently being negotiated along with a new system for the Championship, we at least have the chance of some really good competitive rugby this weekend in the Champions Cup which is finally at the knock-out stage.
With Leicester, Harlequins, Gloucester, Exeter and Saracens representing England this weekend in the Round of 16 there should at least be a couple of sides that make it through to the next round particularly with Leicester, Exeter and Saracens all playing at home.
Leicester managed to beat an out-of-form Edinburgh side, currently 14th in the URC, on Friday night with a try from Jasper Wiese, right. Quins had a harder job and lost away in South Africa against the Stormers, always a difficult prospect with last season’s URC champions playing in front of their home crowd. Finally, Gloucester pushed last season’s Champions Cup winners, La Rochelle, all the way last night, leading in the final minutes before the French side snatched victory.
For the last two games that take place today the likelihood is that they will be home wins for both Exeter and Saracens. Exeter are playing Montpelier at home who are current trailing ninth in the Top 14 and will be focusing on rising up that table rather than the Champions Cup. It is also a notable fact that the French teams lose more games when playing away from home as it appears they always save their best performances for their home crowd.
Saracens face a dispirited Osprey side following the contract saga with the WRU and are currently sitting
12th in the URC making them potentially a relatively easy win for top of the Premiership Saracens. With their talisman, Owen Farrell back after limping off in last week’s game against Quins, it’s likely that Saracens will once again show the improved game style that director of rugby Mark McCall has introduced over the past few seasons.
Away from the Champions Cup, there is also the women’s Six Nations match between England and Italy at Northampton’s Cinch Stadium (Franklin’s Gardens), which is rather appropriate as I am sure that England winning the game will be certainly be a cinch.